Wing Removal

St. Louis GP Club had a Mod Day yesterday and I did something I'd been procrastinating about. If you haven't done this yet I would recommend doing it as soon as you can.

Our wings are mounted tightly against the deck lid by 6 studs w/nuts. There's also some adhesive used but it's minimal. I removed my wing for the purpose of inserting "spacers" between the wing and deck lid so that water can drain. When I removed my wing I was amazed at the amount of shit trapped beneath it. There was pine needles, dirt, small rocks, and grime under there......and I wash my car very often! I was also a little aggravated by the amount of pitting there was in my paint. The car is an '02 for god's sake!

Anyway, I cleaned eveything up and installed 5/16" rubber grommets in the holes in the deck lid. I reinstalled the wing and tested for effectiveness with warm water (It was below freezing here). Success. Also looked insinde the trunk for leakage and there was none.

I'd recommend to everyone that they do this. I wish I hadn't waited so long. DOH!!!! I'd bet some of the cars are rusting under there.

I was attempting this same mod at lunch today but forgot my tools (torque bits)

Never thought about using gromets I did find some rubber washer that are used for water hoses that Im going to use.

I can wash the car on a monday and on a thursday I open the trunk and water still comes down the lid. :banghead:

I talked to a couple of guys in the group and they complained that the hose washers had a tendancy to stick out from beneath the wing when tightened down. The grommets are also nice because they stay in place while you reposition the wing for installation. They're cheap and they're available everywhere: Home Depot, Lowes, Sears Hardware, etc.

Three of the six holes are elongated so the grommets conform nicely to the oval shape.

Cool

Just got done. Deck lid wasnt too bad for being a 98.

Clay'd the lid and applied some wax. Im going out alittle later to test for leaks. It's going to be so nice to not have water get stuck under the wing.

I just purchased a set of seals from the local Pontiac dealer.
The part # is 20733729, and they are about 3/4" diameter, and about 1/8 inch thick.

I too have noticed that water stays under the spoiler for a long period of time.

I'll see how these work, and if they don't, I will try a different route.

Thanks

Walter

"St. Louis GP Club had a Mod Day yesterday and I did something I'd been procrastinating about."


Can you post a link to the St. Louis GP Club? I live in St. Louis and would be interested to see it.

www.stlclubgp.com

It's a great group.......95 members, 30 of which are regulars at gatherings. Gatherings range from Mod Days, to evenings at the track, to dinner at a restaurant. We get together at least once a month. There's no membership fee and no requirement as far as whether or not you come to gatherings. Hope to see you there. My name is Cassidy on the message board.

Thanks for the info. I checked it out, and am now the newest member.

I'm going to take my spoiler off today, and see what is hiding under there. If those seals work, I'll definitely install them.

How did they work on your Pontiac? Thanks for the help.

Well when I installed the SLP one a lot of crap came out of it. Never tought about raising it tought. I did polished the surface and re installed it. I need to seal it. If I wash the car with strong water stream water will leak in. I think raising my SLP wing would not look that good, will try the sealing and if it does not work then raising it a little

We've had two days of freezing rain, sleet, and snow. No leaks! I checked the trunk this morning when I got to work and it's dry.

I took the spoiler off, clayed the lid and applied a coat of polish. Rained the other day and the next morning I opened the trunk and water still came running down the damn lid. No leaks though. I think Im going to try and raise the spoiler by one more set of washers.

I removed the 6 studs under the deck lid, but the spoiler was still very snug. Is that the adhesive? And if so, how do you get the spoiler off with this adhesive on there?

The wing has some padds around the edges, that help keeping it from chafing the trunk lid, but what happens is that they stick.
It will take some working to get it off, but start from one end, and work it up all the way around.

I ordered the seals from Pontiac, you need 6, but they come in a pack of 10, @$1.70 ea. ($17 for the pack).

I found that I had a real mess under my spoiler (wing). Here in Florida we have a lot of flying sand, and it acted like sandpaper under the wing, so I had to grind and paint before putting it back toghether.

When I put it toghedter, I installed the seals between the wing and the trunk lid, dealer drawing shows them installed from inside the trunk, I also installed some shims between the wing and the trunk, to try to keep a gap so that thing will not collect between them anymore.

The shims that I installed came from a shim kit that is used to install a bed cover for the back of a pick-up truck, made by Edwards, they have adhesive on 1 side, and are made of a hard plastic, I put the adhesive side on the metal, so that it will not move around and chafe the trunk lid.

Good luck

Walter

I removed the 6 studs under the deck lid, but the spoiler was still very snug. Is that the adhesive? And if so, how do you get the spoiler off with this adhesive on there?

I've spoken with several people who have removed their wing. It's amazing to me that it seems GM tried something different every model year relative to the wing installation. Maybe they were trying to remedy all the leaking trunks out there.

Mine is an '02 and it had the rubber pads at the ends that Walter mentioned...... but I also had three spots of clear non-hardening adhesive: One in the center toward the rear and two about 6-8" off center toward the rear. There's a couple of things you can do to loosen the adhesive up.

Use a hair dryer or heat gun on low. Take your time! The adhesive will soften up fairly quickly with heat applied. Your other option is to go buy some adhesive remover from a parts store. Be really careful to get one that states that it won't hurt automotive finishes.

Here’s my story. I took my spoiler off last fall. I was tired of listening to the splish-splash, when opening and closing my trunk lid. So I took it off to fix it. Like a few of you, I was shocked to see the paint damage under it. ( Was the paint still wet at the factory, when the spoiler was installed?) Anyway I cleaned everything up really good. And waxed the heck of truck lid with the spoiler removed.

I noticed that the original gaskets were ok but one, and I straighten it out before reinstalling the spoiler. Also, not 100% sure how the water got in it, in the first place, I drilled a weap hole in the very middle, bottom edge. But still out of sight for appearance reasons.

I used a really small drill bit. (Don’t remember which size..) After I finished drilling, I squeezed the spoiler, to get all the water out of it.

I’m not necessarily recommending, or warning not to do this procedure. As I haven’t had any problems to date. Just posting this, curious to hear if you guys think I was nuts for drilling a drain hole in it, or not. ;)